Role of Instructional Technology in Private Teacher Training Colleges in Khyber Pukhtunkhwa (Pakistan)

Instructional technology plays a fundamental and crucial role in facilitating teaching learning process and makes it more effective, interesting and successful. Therefore, the study was conducted to investigate the availability, usability, usefulness and on the other hand barriers to the successful integration of instructional technology in private teacher training colleges in Khyber Pukhtunkhwa (Pakistan). The main objectives of the study were to investigate the availability and usability of instructional technology in private teacher training colleges, the usefulness of instructional technology in teacher training programmes, and to find out the main barriers in the way of successful integration of instructional technology in teacher training programs. All the principals, teachers and prospective teachers working and studying in private teacher training colleges in Khyber Pukhtunkhwa constituted as the population of this study. In total, 24 private colleges out of 48 were selected randomly and from each of these colleges, one principal, 5 teachers and 15 prospective teachers were selected randomly as the sample of this ongoing research. The study was descriptive in nature. Three questionnaires were developed for principals, teachers and for prospective teachers as research instruments for the collection of data. After analysis of data, the researcher arrived at the conclusion that most of the important instructional technologies are not available in private teacher training colleges. Teachers do not use even the available instructional technologies into teaching learning process. The researchers noted that poor availability of instructional technologies is the main barrier to the technology integration. In addition, lack of technical and administrative support, lack of funding, lack of necessary skills and knowledge, excessive electricity failures, lack of training opportunities, and lack of preparation time were also observed during data collection. ?Key Words- Teacher Education, Teachers Training Colleges, Instructional Technology, Barriers to the successful integration of instructional technology